The Alaska Health Project South Sudan is a grassroots, Alaskan based organization that provides vital humanitarian aid to a remote, isolated region in South Sudan. With the mission of “saving lives through health, water and agriculture”, AHPSS is addressing urgent basic needs in one of the most impoverished regions of the world. We spoke with Board President Dr. Jack Hickel about the 16 year program and the upcoming fundraising event in Anchorage.
Alaska Health Project South Sudan history (link to AHPSS site)
"AHPSS began when Alaskan doctor Jack Hickel visited a remote village in South Sudan called Old Fangak at the invitation of Dr. Jill Seaman, another Alaskan doctor who had been working in South Sudan for over 20 years. What Dr. Hickel saw astounded him. Even though he spent 17 years previously working in Africa, Dr. Hickel found a level of poverty and lack of infrastructure that was beyond anything he had ever seen. In just a ten-day period Jack watched several villagers die from preventable diseases and malnutrition. Thirty years of civil war had devastated South Sudan. Children were dying needlessly of malnutrition and disease. Dr. Seaman was single handedly running a clinic that was being overwhelmed by thousands of patients. The people of Old Fangak had been forgotten. Due to a lack of roads and the logistical challenges of reaching the area, few other aid organizations had ever been to Old Fangak. Dr. Hickel returned back to Alaska determined that he was going to help. In 2008 he recruited a group of dedicated local volunteers to start the Alaska Sudan Medical Project. Today in 2025 we continue the same work as the Alaska Health Project South Sudan. We focus our humanitarian work on projects that bring clean water for the people of Fangak, Canal Pigi, and Ayod Counties as well as an agriculture program to help over 1,000 families grow food to fight food insecurity."
